


Long Distance Connection

by HeartOnATrigger



Series: I'm Clearly Not The Role Model Type [2]
Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Connections, Everyone needs a fucking hug damn it, Father son relationship, Gen, Harley needs a hug, Multi, Nick Fury Needs A Hug, Phil Coulson lives, Tony Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony has kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 02:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1452289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartOnATrigger/pseuds/HeartOnATrigger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They laugh, and its as if they're back in Tennessee again, sitting in Harley's living room and taking apart his toaster to use for spare parts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Distance Connection

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing. Actually, this fic was created for a tumblr user. I hope she enjoys it.

Harley stood in the street, cold, staring after the car even though it was long gone. His heart twisted painfully. In the short time Tony, The Mechanic, was there, it felt like, for once, he had a father. Tony didn't treat him like a stupid kid; he respected him and snarked at him and expected him to keep up and Jesus Christ it was the most wonderful thing he had ever experienced. Years of neglect had hardened his twelve year old heart, and his mother never being home didn't help matters.  
  
But Tony.....no, he couldn't even think his name. Not now. Not ever.   
  
He took the long way home, cutting through the back alleyways, uncaring for his own safety. He wished he'd said something to The Mechanic before he'd driven away, maybe something along the liens of, "You're the closest thing I ever had to a father," or even a, "Take me with you!" It was too late now. Harley got home about twenty minutes after midnight and threw himself down onto the couch.  
  
He had a nightmare about people with glowing red skin and a dead Tony Stark.  


* * *

In all honesty, Harley actually hadn't been expecting anything from Mr. Mechanic after he left. Really, it was just cool he got to work with the suit, help the famous Iron Man get back on his feet. Not that he told anyone. Who would believe him, anyways? Certainly not the kids at school who constantly teased him and tripped him in the hallway.  
  
Harley all but ran off the bus and raced up the driveway to his house. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He did a double take.  
  
His entire living room with filed with toys, electronic tools, even a few books with notes from Tony Stark himself, back from his MIT days. And beside it was a gauntlet, with a note attached:  
  
 _Enjoy,_  
 _The Mechanic_  
  
It was then that it started again, a dream long lost forgotten now resurfacing at the opportunities Mechanic gave to him. He managed to hide most of the stuff in his room and the shed attached to the side of the shack.  
  
His mother suspected nothing.   
  
.....as if she would, since she's never home.  


* * *

"I'm home!"   
  
Harley's heart almost rips out of his chest as he shoves the rest of the gifts into his room, hurriedly closing his door just as his mom came around the corner, tossing her purse on the lone couch in the living room. She frowns.  
  
"Why do you look so guilty? Did you get in trouble at school again?"  
  
"Even if I did, it wouldn't be my fault. You know the other kids always bother me." Harley hates that he has to tell his mom this everyday, to explain to her that he was just a victim of being the one rogue kid with no one to look out for him. "I'm going to bed."  
  
"But you haven't even had----"  
  
"I'm not hungry."  
Before she even has a chance to reply, Harley's already in his room with the door locked. She knocks about an hour later, food on a tray.  
  
"Go away!" Harley yells, chewing on a pencil, playing with the potato gun his Mechanic gave him.  
  
"Harley----"  
  
"I said _go away_!" Harley screams, angry now. He was angry because Tony was gone and his mom was here and the one time he didn't need her, she insisted on being there.  
  
Five minutes later, his mom leaves. Harley opens the door and takes the tray off the ground. When he eats his grilled cheese sandwich, he wonders what his life would've been like if Tony stayed.  
  
Probably a lot better.  


* * *

When his acceptance letter came in the mail, Harley's vision swirled a bit and he stumbled, ramming his back into the sharp corner of the kitchen counter.   
  
He gripped the ivory paper tighter, then quickly loosened his grip and tossed the envelope and letter on the table, afraid to rip it. His entire world was changing, just by one sheet of paper. Because never had he thought he would be sitting here, staring at a very sophisticated letter from a prestigious school, let alone MIT.   
  
Slowly, he slid down to the floor, just a few feet away from the table, gripping his hair, panicking. His breath came in quick, short spurts, and he sat there, gasping, as if he were going to have an asthma attack.   
  
I'm hallucinating, he thought, deciding that it was a safer route to travel. This isn't happening. It's just....its just a trick. A prank. Something the others at school made up to humiliate me!  
  
But.....there was no one in his school who could write that well and use such an advanced vocabulary beside himself. Not even his teachers could get up on his level.  
  
Rising on shaky legs, he picked up the letter and read it again:  
  
 _Harley Keener,_  
 _We are very pleased to inform you that you have you been accepted into Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a full scholarship for all years of planned attendance. Below is the the information you will need to confirm your acceptance of this scholarship...._  
  
Harley couldn't read the rest because he passed out on the floor. His mother found him an hour later and after she read the letter, they danced around the kitchen together, something they haven't done since he was eight.   
  
And in that moment, everything in the world was perfect.  
  
But, somewhere in the back of his mind, he wished his Mechanic was here.   


* * *

"Where did you go to college?" Harley asks through a mouthful of screws as he took apart the Iron Man suit.  
  
"Why?" Tony replies from behind the couch, hand flying across the paper as he went through equations. "You tryna follow in my footsteps?"  
  
"I'll leave the drinking to you, of course," Harley sneered.   
Tony laughs and says, "I went to MIT. Well, I'm not sure if I went there because I wanted to or because my dad wanted to get rid of me."  
  
"Your dad?" Harley asked and wished he hadn't when he saw Tony tense. "Sorry. You don't have to talk about it."  
  
"He was never home," Tony tells him, wondering how he got to a point in his life where he's telling a kid about his daddy issues. "And if he was, he was fucking every other but my mother." Tony laughs bitterly. "I guess father-like-son, right?"  
  
Harley frowns.  
"In all honesty," Harley smiles. "I think you're a lot better. More good looking, too."  
  
The comment makes Tony's heart swell, even in their current situation. They work in comfortable silence. After a while, tony looks over his shoulder and watches Harley, his face twisted in concentration. Shortly, Tony wonders if this is what it feels like to be a father. Harley looks up and catches his eyes. He blushes and looks away.  
  
Tony smiles and looks back down at his equations.  


* * *

Just two years into being in MIT, on the dean's list, and being the best student in his class, his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.   
  
He held her hand at the hospital.  
  
"I'm sorry, you know," she cries, clinging onto his hand with the last of her strength. He can feel her brittle bones through the nightgown. "I...I was never home, was never there for you, never when you needed me."  
  
"Mom," he whispers. "Its fine, really, it is."  
  
"No," she insists. Her body is racked with coughs, and Harley tenses, tears stinging behind his eyes. "I always loved you, even when I could never there...I just...." She's crying now, and Harley feels his throat tighten, "I only wanted to make sure we had enough. Ever since your father----"  
  
"I don't want to talk about him," Harley snaps. He takes a deep breath. "We shouldn't talk about him. He doesn't matter."  
  
"No," his mom smiles, reaching a frail hand to play with his hair. "I suppose he doesn't."  
  
An hour later she's being wheeled off into the morgue. A week later, Harley's back at MIT. His aloofness is a result of his grief. But no one understands. Sure, he's still the top of his class, but his friends aren't his friends anymore. A month later, Harley broke the gauntlet. He immeditely fixes it and spends the next four months crying himself to sleep. He wishes he didn't miss The Mechanic. Except he's glad he did; it's nice to know that there was a time in his life where he was truly happy.   
  
He clings onto those memories, and they help him get by, but only for a little bit. Then, the memories of Tony Stark make things worse. He starts taking antidepressant pills to take the pain away. Even with his mind numbed, he still remembers Tony's approving grin.  
  
He wishes he could see it now.  


* * *

Pepper and Tony are married five months after Killian's attack. The Avengers wouldn't have been invited, except for Thor and Bruce, had Pepper not invited them. Fury shows up too, as well as a perfectly alive and well Coulson. Fury receives a punch to the face from the team's marksmen. Fury doesn't retaliate. His control slipped a bit, however, when Natasha breaks his wrist. Still, he does nothing.   
  
Thor was in town that then, after the entire fiasco with the Dark Elves, Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis at his side. He nearly electrocutes Fury to death. Jane holds him back. Darcy doesn't help matters by hyping Thor up in the background, cackling like a maniac. Steve comes, too, with Bruce, and Bruce's eyes flashed green, his skin even tinting a little before he regained control of himself and managed to give Nick Fury a very detailed description of what the Hulk would do to him if he was ever lied to again. Steve gives Nick his famous disapproving stare, the look that could make even the Black Widow feel slightly ashamed when she was on the receiving end of it.   
  
After seeing Fury be treated like shit, Tony gives him two goodie bags and his doctor's card on his way out, because even he wasn't that heartless.  
  
He likes to think that part of him disappeared after Tennessee.

* * *

It wasn't a surprise when Tony and Pepper came back from their honeymoon in Rio three weeks early. But, of course, the public thought it was because neither of them could just drop everything to relax; not with Tony being Iron Man and Pepper being the CEO of Stark Industries and Stark wrangler. That wasn't the reason they came back, however.  
  
Pepper was pregnant.  
  
It figures, Tony thought when she told him, after he'd picked her up and spun her around. Now, they laid together on the beach, his arms around her. Of course I'd get her pregnant the one time she forgets to take her birth control and the one time I forget to wear a condom.  
  
Either way, eight and a half months later, they're blessed with a beautiful baby girl with big blue eyes and midnight black hair.  
  
"It figures," Pepper whines, breastfeeding Maria Stark----Tony picked the name and left no room for arguments, although it wasn't like she disagreed----,"that after carrying the little monster for almost nine months, she comes out exactly like you."  
  
As if she heard her name being called, tiny Maria looked up at her mother and cooed, eyes sparkling. Tony grins.  
  
In the back of his mind, he wonders what Harley's up to. Does the kid even remember him? Tony selfishly wishes he does.  


* * *

"I'm gonna tell you a story," Tony says to Maria one day after Pepper left for work at Stark Industries. The two sat in Tony's penthouse, the only floors of the tower no one else was allowed on. Maria, three months old, was already sitting up and holding her own bottles. She stared at her father around the milk she was guzzling. It reminded him of the way he would down his beer. Yeah, she was totally his daughter. "It's about me, of course. I mean, who else would it be about?"  
  
Marie didn't answer. She was still too busy sucking as much milk from the bottle as she could until the bottle was completely dry.   
  
Tony continued.  
"Anyways, I don't know how mommy would feel if I gave you a very graphic intake on my missions, although she should be impressed that I was sober enough to remember all of them. But I can tell you about Harley." He grins. "He's the kid I met in Tennessee, back when Extremis was a problem and all. Harley reminded me a lot of myself, actually," Tony admits, "so maybe that's why I connected with him so quickly, although I kept denying it. It was easier that way, at least that's what I told myself. I thought I was doing him a favor, keeping a little kid out of my crazy, mostly homicidal and suicidal life. I mean, it's not like I could adopt him since he had a mom and his mom would be pretty suspicious if Tony Stark came knocking on her door, asking for her child."  
  
Tony pauses, thinking about it, and then nods in agreement with himself. "Yeah, I'd probably beat myself's ass. But it was different, you know, Marie?" He was met with silence, but he kept talking, "I was always alone, like he was, and didn't have many friends, like he did, and I was left to my own devices which led to taking apart the toasters and blowing shit---oops, I meant blowing stuff up, like he would do.  
  
"But it was still different, because I wanted to help him, but I didn't know how. And then, I left, off to fight Killian, and I kept thinking, "Oh, god, what if someone saw him helping me? He's a goner!" But he was safe, and that's all that mattered."  
  
Clearing his throat, Tony wiped away the tear that managed to escape his eye. He forced a grin back on his face and looked at his daughter. Maria gave him a look she must have learned from Pepper, because she seemed to look into his soul. He wasn't fooling this one.   
  
"I made sure he got noticed by schools, you know," Tony whispers, reaching out a shaky hand to run it across Maria's hair. She giggles and latches onto him, tossing the bottle aside and using his arm as support to topple forward and crawl towards him. Maria climbed onto his lap, tugging at his shirt. "I always made sure he was taken care of. Just like I'll do with you and mommy."  
  
Maria squeals. "Da!" she declares, tugging harder at his shirt. "Da da!"  
  
Tony laughs, and asks JARVIS if he caught her first words on video for Pepper later. JARVIS said he did. Tony picks his daughter up and tickles her.   
  
"I always knew you'd say my name first."  
  
But somehow, "Da da" didn't have the same effect "The Mechanic" did.   


* * *

All the Avengers are there when Maria takes her first steps, just two days after she said her first words. Everyone could tell she was going to be a genius. Tony bragged about his superior sperm and asked Pepper if she was glad to have bred with such a fine specimen as himself.   
  
He was brutally slapped by Pepper and Natasha, and soon Maria joined in on the fun, giggling all the way.   
  
Tony wonders if Harley would've liked it here. He thinks he would have.  


* * *

The second time Pepper's pregnant, her pregnancy goes just like before, a period of eight and a half months before popping out a bouncing baby boy with Tony's eyes but Pepper's strawberry blonde hair. He also seemed to inherit Pepper's calm nature, because he barely cried.   
  
One day, Tony and Pepper walk into the baby's room----after much arguing, Pepper finally agreed to let the baby's name be Tony Anthony Stark Jr.----to see Maria and TJ----the baby's nickname----sitting on the floor, Maria blabbing on about the wonders of science while TJ stared up at her adoringly.   
  
Pepper and Tony both smile, but, really, all he can think about that's how he and Harley looked when they were putting the Iron Man suit back together, Tony opening a brand new door for him and Harley staring at Tony, making him feel like he truly mattered.

* * *

Just two weeks later, Tony called for a press conference. He made it so none of the other Avengers were here to try and stop him. He knew what he was about to do was very risky, and also very selfish. But he did have his reasons, and they were good reasons.   
  
When the crowd settled, Tony began. He wished Pepper was here with him, even though he knew she had to stay back at the tower to watch the kids.   
  
"There are a lot of things I thought I would never be," Tony starts, ignoring the flash cards Pepper had given him. She should have learned by now that flash cards made him think it was a challenge to go against orders. Still, she had given them to him, and now he must do what he wanted. "A superhero is one," this earns him wry laughter from the reporters and their camera men, because they all thought the exact same thing years ago before Tony had revealed himself as Iron Man. "A father is another one," Tony continues, and the crowd slips back into stunned silence. Yeah.....Tony's done a really good job hiding his kid's existence from the world. Now, however, the secret must come out.  
  
"Yeah," Tony smiles. "I have kids. Two, actually. And its the reason I called this press conference. I realized that it wasn't fair to anyone if I kept playing Iron Man instead of being at home with my family. I didn't wanna be that kind of dad where the kid asks, "Mommy, why hasn't Daddy come home yet?" after I've been gone for a week long mission and have the mom reply with, "Daddy's not coming back." I just couldn't have that for my children.   
  
"Being a superhero was great," he admits, shrugging casually. "It was nice to help others, be famous, have tons of fans, do interviews, even team up with other superheroes. But....none of the other heroes have what I have. But if they did, they'd know why I was giving it up.  
  
"It is with a heavy heart that I am retiring as Iron Man----" all hell broke loose, but Tony still spoke over the uproar of noise, "----I plan on destroying my suits and plan on focusing on Stark Industries and my family. Thank you."  
  
As he fights his way through the crowd----okay, so, Happy fights through it for him, big deal----a small part of his mind flickers to Harley and he wonders if he got his acceptance letter into MIT yet.  


* * *

Tony strutted into a science convention in London, England, which was filled with the world's smartest people and students who hope the intelligence would rub off on them. It had been ten years since Killian, and he and Pepper were still going strong. The had a daughter, eight, and a son, two, now. He came to England alone this time, and it took him nearly a week to convince Pepper that, no, he wasn't going to blow something up simply because he felt like it.   
  
His hair was graying slightly, a few smile lines marking his handsome face. Unfortunately for men everywhere, he got handsomer with age. Sigh. Of course, universe. Give Tony Stark another reason to have a huge ego. Its not like he was almost falling over from the weight of it or anything.  
  
But, really, Tony didn't want to be there. He hated coming to these things, where he proved to everyone year after year that he was still incredibly smart, as well as incredibly sexy, and that even his two year old son could solve their problems.   
  
He managed to walk around and give every display his attention. After the fifth full-of-bullshit-made-by-old-men-without-imaginatios invention he came across, he decided, fuck it, he would go see what the younger guys were doing, see if they were learning anything from the schools Tony kept donating to.  
  
Only an hour into the convention did Tony realize he was being followed. Instantly, his guard went up; after so many life or death situations he's gone through, he really wasn't in the mood for something else. And, you know, if he didn't get home to Pepper by the end of this week she'd hunt him down and strangle him to death.  
  
Tony glanced behind him briefly. The man----could he even be counted as a man? He looked like he was barely over twenty five! He had blonde hair was streaks of brown, and he was lean, walking with perfect posture and walking towards Tony with purpose. Sighing, Tony walked faster, and took a sharp left. He managed to make it ten feet before the man back him into a corner.  
  
"I _really_ don't think----" Tony began.  
  
"I'm Harley Keener. I don't suppose you remember me, but we shared an adventure ten years ago in Tennessee. You changed my life. I hope you don't mind, but ever since that night I have thought of you as the closest t hing I ever had to a father."  
  
A million things passed between them, something to intense, so strong, that Tony felt his eyes burn with tears. Harley stared back at him, eyes so familiar, filled with a sparkle as he recalled coming home and finding a superhero sitting on his couch. Tony wanted to reach out and feel him, to feel secure, to know that this was real. Harley beams at him, and Tony can feel the strong sense of accomplishment rolling off of him in thick waves, almost drowning him in a way his own accomplishment never did.   
  
Tony grins.   
  
"You're trying to guilt trip me. I have to give you points for that, even if you are ten years late."  
  
The young man smiles. "It was worth a try."  
  
They laugh, and its as if they're back in Tennessee again, sitting in Harley's living room and taking apart his toaster to use for spare parts.  


* * *

"My mom won't like this," Harley commented as he tossed Tony a screwdriver. Tony rolled his eyes.  
  
"I'm sure she'd understand," Tony says.  
  
Now Harley rolls eyes. "Right. I suppose you'll just lay on the Tony charm, huh? The last thing I want to see is you seducing my mom."  
  
Tony smirks, "Just for that, now I have to do it."  
  
Harley groans and playfully kicks Tony in the shin. Tony pretends to be hurt and cripples to the ground.  
"You gotta be careful, kid," Tony mutters. "I'm getting old. You could've killed me."  
  
"Oh, get up, you big baby!" Harley laughs. "Don't you have a suit to fix?"  
  
Tony rises and shoves Harley back, sending him flying back onto the couch. Harley cheerfully flips him the bird. They grin at each other.   
  
For a second, it felt normal.  


* * *

"Please tell me you're legal," Tony says as he buys Harley a beer at a bar in the finest bar in London. His suit sits in a suitcase at his side. Harley stares at it longingly before answering.  
  
"Just turned twenty two," Harley reports, the corners of his mouth twitching. "And you, old man?"  
  
"Oh," Tony said. "Excuse me. Well, I guess, being an old man and all, I can just take this beer back---" He reaches for the beer and Harley pulls it back, laughing. "What have you been up to, kid? Take apart any good toasters lately?"  
  
The bartender gives them an odd look when the two men laugh. He refills their drinks before scuffling away.   
  
"Taking apart toasters isn't nearly as fun as taking down bad guys," Harley snarked, swirling his glass, pursing his lips. "I didn't expect to see you here."  
  
Tony snorted. "I didn't expect to see you again, either."  
  
"Sending a postcard would have been nice," Harley whispered bitterly, "Even a nice _kiss my ass_ would have sufficed. I guess you've been busy the last few years, huh?"  
  
Harley hated how feeble is sounded, his voice betraying how much Tony's absence had really affected him. His mind went back to his days back at home, his mom never noticing the explosions coming from his room or the kids at his school still treating him like an outcast. Sometimes, though, he figures it was better that way. It would have been harder to leave if he had something, or someone, to leave behind.   
  
Tony clears his throat, but does nothing else to break the awkward silence. Harley looked at him, bottom lip trembling, eyes almost vibrating as they tried to continue blocking the wave of tears that wanted to come out.  
  
"I wasn't sure if I wanted to hug you or punch you when I saw you at the convention," Harley admitted, setting down his glass and turning his full body towards the older man, smiling a little. "I almost did both. But I figured your ego didn't need anymore boosting."  
  
"I'm glad you've got my personality down pact," Tony chuckles. "So, tell me what you've been doing for the past ten years."  


* * *

It was almost two in the morning when Tony and Harley left the bar, sweating and heavily drunk. Well, Tony was drunk. Harley wasn't drinking because he didn't want to miss out on another night with his Mechanic, someone he's been missing for years. They talked for hours, Harley telling Tony all about his work and his breakthroughs and his surprisingly scholarships to the top schools, his all expense paid trip to MIT, how much he missed Tony; Tony telling Harley about his kids, how his daughter wanted to be a heart surgeon and how his son wanted to be just like his dad and be a superhero while running a company at the same same time, his marriage to Pepper, his brief membership of the Avengers, and his decreasing time as Iron Man.   
  
"Why won't you be Iron Man anymore?" Harley inquired, stunned.  
  
Tony paused for a few seconds before answering.  
"Well," he confessed. "I'm not Iron Man now, really. I mean, I only go out when the Avengers or some other superhero team can't hold it." He down his beer and signaled to the bartender, pointing at a bottle of vodka. "I have a family now, Harley. I couldn't keep going out, taking risks, not when I have a family at home, waiting for me. And I......" He cuts himself off and shakes his head, laughing darkly.  
  
"What?" Harley demands, leaning forward. "What is it? You what?"  
  
"It's just....," Tony looked up at him, and it was like they were back in the road again, when a moment came and went in a matter of a few seconds. Tony cleared his throat and looked away. It was like he wasn't there anymore, no longer in the bar. He could remember everything that happened through the past ten years.  


* * *

"It's three in the morning," Pepper said from behind him, and she appeared out of the dark stairwell, stepping into the dimly lit lab. "What are you still doing down here?"  
  
Tony shrugs, although they both know exactly what he's doing down there, what he's been doing for the past two years since Killian. He's been in the lab more often at night, unable to find sleep.   
  
Pepper smiles softly, and runs a hand through his dark, wild hair. "I'm sure he's fine."  
  
"His mom is never home," Tony says. "I don't think he's doing fine."  
  
"I wish you showed this much dedication to someone years ago," Pepper teased. Her smile vanished when she saw Tony's face, a look many people, mostly superheroes, had; a face that had seen way too much. She nodded, understanding his desire to help the kid he met two years ago. Of course, the one person besides her who was able to understand and put him with him would be a kid who struggled with family issues, lack of friends, lack of trust, and a closet genius. She looked over Tony's shoulder and saw that he hacked into several colleges systems and turned their attention to a small town in Tennessee, which held Harley, a kid who excelled with math and science. She kissed his cheek. "Don't stay up too late."  


* * *

"Its just what?" Harley pressed, desperate for something, anything that could be a memory for him to hold onto when all of this was over, when Tony left and then there would be nothing left for him to grasp. "Mechanic?"  
  
Tony grins at the name; honestly, he missed it, really, a nickname that no one could ever say right except for him. "It's just that..." Tony looks him in the eye and smiles. "You made me get myself together. Back then, you were the closest thing to family I had," he confesses, embarrassed. Harley's eyes widen. Tony can almost hear Harley's heart picking up speed. Or is that his own? "Enough about me, though. Tell me more about your project."  
  
In the first five minutes Tony learned that Harley's project needed funding and he made a note to give as much money as Pepper would allow to him, secretly of course. He would take care of Harley, like he had all those years ago, when he'd made sure the colleges looked at him when they visited the school. The same way he made sure Harley got into good colleges and got money and had food on the table.   
  
Some people thought it would be a simple reason, like maybe he felt bad for the little blonde haired genius he met in a small, isolated town of Tennessee. Or maybe it was that he felt obligated to. But it was something more complex, something no one but Tony----and maybe Harley, later, when he was older----would understand.  
  
It was because Harley saved him when he had no one, was there for him when his entire world was falling apart. That night, sitting on a beaten up couch filled with holes and a musty scent of mothballs, Harley was the closest thing Tony ever came to having a son.   


* * *

One week later, when Harley was visiting his mother's grave back in Tennessee, he walked into his old house (he kept it, simply too nostalgic to give it up when it held so many memories), and he walked into his old bedroom and found the Iron Man suit, red and gold and perfect as it leaned against his closet door.   
  
There was a note.  
  
 _Harley_ , it said  
 _I know I didn't say any of this when I saw you, but I figured I had to say it sometime, before it was too late. Really, in all honestly, you were the first son I ever had. That's what I was going to tell you that night in London. But I couldn't do it. I know, it sucks. But you reminded me of myself so much; my parent's were never home, and when they were, I was the last thing on their mind. Being in Tennessee changed things for me. You know I considered coming back for you after I defeated Killian? I didn't, though, because I already lost too many people because I brought them into my life and I didn't want to give you the same fate. But I want you to know that I never stopped caring about you. I know you never expected to hear something like this come out of my mouth, or, rather, on paper-----you know what? Whatever. That's not the point. What matters is that we lost too much time. Ten years is a lot._  
  
 _I was hoping you would come by my tower sometime and stay for a while, meet the team, meet the family.....if you want._  
  
 _This suit is yours. I know you'll take care of it, because you were the first person besides my wife who never wanted anything from me, who never betrayed me. I know I can count on you to keep this one secret safe. To keep Iron Man safe._  
  
 _Don't keep me waiting long._  
  
 _Your favorite superhero in the entire world (please, don't argue, because my ego could use a bit more stroking),_  
 _The Mechanic_  


* * *

Just a day later, Harley moved into the tower, dragging the suit with him. Tony grabs him in a headlock and ruffles his hair. Together, they walk into the living, meet the Avengers, and trails after Tony down to the lab.  
  
His presence isn't questioned.  
  
He's accepted.   
  
And, for the first time in forever, he feels loved.  
  
---  
  
**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Feedback is welcome!


End file.
